The artistry of the moundbuilders, perhaps
reaching a zenith in 1000-1500 A.D., is especially apparent in luxury
goods for the wealthy, many of which they took to the grave.

These
objects were used as gifts to enhance one's
social and political status, as ceremonial or religious symbols, as
a means to represent social values, and as a way for political leaders
to signify their position or bestow position on others.

The
era's pottery blossomed with new ideas: long-necked
water jugs, round-bottomed pots, and other forms suggesting Mexican
influence. Painted vessels, rare for this period in the east, sometimes
appear in sites from late in the era.

Pottery
Jug found at a mound site on private property
in Arkansas by C.B. Moore, a wealthy Philadelphia socialite and physician
who abandoned medicine and traversed the southeast in a steamboat, conducting
some of the most significant excavations of the time.
Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1909.

Effigy
bowl recovered by C.B. Moore in an expedition
conducted along Arkansas' rivers in 1909-10. Journal
of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1909.

Ceremonial
spear head made of sheet copper, found at
a burial site in Arkansas. From physician-turned-
amateur archeologist C.B. Moore in an expedition conducted along Arkansas'
rivers in 1909-10. From
Moore's account in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural
Sciences.

This
small bowl was found at Rose Mound in Arkansas.
Decorated outside with three lines of raised nodes and inside with red
pigment, it is among the highest quality of artifacts excavated by C.B.
Moore. From
Moore's account in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural
Sciences.